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Tag Archives | prior art

Can I patent this invention? One of the first steps in the patent process is to determine whether you can obtain a patent on the invention. The heavy lifting of this determination is a patentability search, also known as a patent novelty search. The purpose of the search is to give you information on whether your invention is new and therefore patentable. Can you do that search yourself?

Searching Yourself v. Professional Searching

Yes, but patent searching is an art that you get better at with repeated practice. Therefore, a professional patent searcher is likely to uncover results that you did not find given the professional searcher’s experience, access to search tools, and knowledge of searching techniques.

However, you may like to perform patent searching on your own because you could identify relevant …

“Its patented.” “They have a patent on it.” “It’s patent pending.” “You cannot sell that because I have a patent on it.”

Many statements get thrown around in the marketplace about patent rights.

But what do these statements mean? Are these statements being used correctly? What rights does the competitor actually have?

If you are faced with claims that a competitor has a patent or has patent pending, you want to know the impact to your business and your ability to compete.

Does my competitor have a patent or just a pending application?

Often times you hear “I have a patent” or “It’s patented”, when the competitor merely has a patent application filed. Also, “I have a provisional patent” is often used. But there’s no such thing as a provisional …